Sam’s Commentary

Marrone: Right Guy, Right Place, Right Time

Photo by: Phillips Helmets When it comes to the subject of leadership, perhaps no group is easier to study than football coaches. At one point, fans in Jacksonville had Steve Spurrier, Bobby Bowden, Vince Dooley and Howard Schnellenberger or Jimmy Johnson leading the major college programs they followed. All very successful, all very different in […]

Blake, Teammate, And That’s How He Likes It

Photo by: Phillips Helmets I’ve been to Oviedo but I’m not sure I remember it. Apparently, that’s not unusual. “Kind of like Yulee but not that far away,” is how one Orlando native described it. They have a Target, a mall, movie theaters, all the things you’d expect of a suburb community. South of Sanford […]

Jaguars Come Alive, Upset Steelers, Head To AFC Title Game

It was thirty minutes of the unexpected in the first half between the Jaguars and the Steelers. Getting the ball first, the Jaguars looked like world-beaters on offense marching right down field in eight plays covering 66 yards and scoring on 4th down to take a 7-0 lead. Leonard Fournette dove in from the one […]

Jaguars In Pittsburgh, All Business

Photo by: Phillips Helmets It should be a little colder than expected for the Jaguars/Steelers game on Sunday. Temperatures in the teens during the game could impact play; with the thought the Jaguars should get the worse of it. “It’s just a couple hours of sacrifice,” Linebacker Telvin Smith said after the team arrived in […]

The Hammer Podcast, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars To Play Eagles In London

They’re not sure if it’ll be week 7 or 8 but the Jaguars will face the Philadelphia Eagles in London this fall. The game will be one of three in London for the NFL in 2018 including two at Wembley and one at the new home of Tottenham Hotspur, White Hart Lane. The exact date […]

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars Beat Buffalo With Defense,”Grit”

You never know how the big stage will affect teams and athletes when they’ve never been there before. Against the Bills, the Jaguars looked like they weren’t sure they belonged in the NFL playoffs in the first half. On offense they were horrible. Between play calling and execution, they couldn’t get out of their own […]

Khan, “I’m very, very bullish on Jacksonville.”

In his five years as an owner in the NFL, Shad Khan has been surprised more than once. On and off the field he’s seen things he didn’t expect. But the business as a whole is different than the one he saw from the outside. “It’s much bigger than I expected,” Khan said on Thursday […]

Boselli, Dawkins Finalists For 2018 Hall Of Fame

Photo by: Phillips Helmets It’s never an easy process but the fifteen finalists for the Class of 2018 Pro Football Hall of Fame are particularly qualified this year. For the second straight year, the Jaguars Tony Boselli and Jacksonville’s Brian Dawkins are among the final fifteen. That means they’ve made it from the 108 eligible […]

Marrone’s Routine Stays The Same

For a young team that doesn’t have much playoff experience, the Jaguars will lean on their veterans who have been there and a coaching staff that has been around the league a while. Head Coach Doug Marrone doesn’t have that much postseason experience as a player or as a coach, but his staff, including Keenan […]

Jaguars Home, Have Already Moved On

Photo by: Phillips Helmets After a New Year’s Eve flight home and a look at the 15-10 loss to the Titans aboard the Jaguars charter, players didn’t see it much differently than when the left the field in Nashville: That’s over, it’s on to the playoffs. “It’s what you fight so hard for, it’s what […]

Jaguars Look Ahead To Playoffs

Photo by: Phillips Helmets While the loss to the Titans might have “done it’s job” according to the Jaguars players in the locker room in Nashville, they know losing two straight going into the post season isn’t ideal. “We better bounce back,” said tight end Marcedes Lewis. No do overs next week. Too many mistakes […]

Jaguars Limp Into Playoffs

Photo by: Phillips Helmets Whether they call it “a game of inches” or “on any given Sunday” or “playing above the x’s and o’s,” there’s an intangible you can feel when a team is playing winning football. It’s an edge, a little hop, a swagger in the body language that’s easily identifiable. On their run […]

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars Dominate Texans 45-7, Qualify For Post-season

It’s not that the Jaguars beat the Houston Texans easily to qualify for the post-season for the first time since 2007, not even how they dominated all over the field winning 45-7. It might be who’s making plays for the Jaguars that are the biggest surprise. Midway through the first quarter Marqise Lee left the […]

Jaguars Make Big Statement Beating Seattle, 30-24

Photo by: Phillips Helmets There actually is a strategy to keeping Russell Wilson in check. The problem is Wilson is so good, so smart and such a good athlete that executing the strategy is a problem. For the Jaguars defense, a combination of straight up field, stay-in-your-lanes rush, backed by the linebackers spreading across the […]

Jacksonville Sports News, Sam Kouvaris - SamSportsline.com

Jaguars Sweep Colts, Eye Post-season

In December, playoff teams emerge, playing their best football and beating teams they’re supposed to beat. No upsets, no cliffhangers, just a professional job on the field, getting it done and moving on. That’s what the Jaguars were doing in the first half against the Colts at home on Sunday. Opening the game on defense, […]

Mullen Is The New Gators Head Coach

Introduced as the Head Coach of the Florida Gators football program, Dan Mullen said his teams would play with “relentless effort, every Saturday. “We might not be the biggest or the fastest but we’ll play with relentless effort I can guarantee that,” Mullen said in front of the assembled media, staff and supporters in the […]

Jaguars Falter, Lose To AZ, 27-21

Photo by: Phillips Helmets Without two starting offensive linemen the Jaguars didn’t have much to offer the Arizona Cardinals on that side of the ball. For the second week, Patrick Omameh and Jeremy Parnell weren’t in the lineup and it showed in pass protection as in the running game. Against Cleveland last week, they got […]

Boselli’s Chances For The Hall? Pretty Good

Photo by: Phillips Helmets Out of a list of 108 former players and coaches who were eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, the Selection Committee, by mail vote, cut that number down to twenty-five “semi-finalists.” The Selection Committee has 48 members, one representative for each of the 32 teams and sixteen […]

Boselli, Dawkins, Butler Among Hall Of Fame Semifinalists

For the third consecutive year, former Jaguars left tackle Tony Boselli is among the 27 semi-finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. From an original list of 108 eligible players, Boselli joins Jacksonville natives Leroy Butler and Brian Dawkins along with Georgia’s Hines Ward among those the HOF’s selection committee will consider on the […]

Jaguars Do Just Enough, Beat Browns 19-7

Photo by: Phillips Helmets With a makeshift offensive line, cool weather and a little bit of snow in the forecast the Jaguars knew going into the game they’d have to just grind it out if they wanted to come home from Cleveland with a win. They did just that with 139 yards rushing, 111 from […]